Scorprio for August 2017

Long ago, my father explained to me that there are basically two kinds of power: formal and informal. Formal power is the manager of a baseball team. Informal power is the most popular player, adored by the fans and the press. The laws of a country represent formal power; its customs are informal power. You are working with both kinds of influence at the moment, and it's crucial that you distinguish the two—and that you know which to use in what situation. Most of the time, informal power is what runs the world. Custom trumps law almost every time. You may be out of step with these informal kinds of influences. For one thing, you're too self-critical, needlessly so, and this interferes with the notion that people might like you enough to play on your team. Of course, people tend to like you, and they tend to respect you innately; but it's hard to take this in if you are in a nearly constant state of self-judgment. One thing that will help is if you catch yourself whenever you think that the past is the present. It may be, until you interrupt that pattern, and get yourself into this moment, and fully inhabit this time of your life. Your opinions, fears, judgments, and hang-ups are all products of the past. Forget it! You can only be alive now.